In what ways have your parents disappointed you but on the other hand, have pleased you?

This question was inspired by its converse, posted here.

Do your parents inspire you or disappoint you? Do they do both? I’ll answer this question first. My parents are both very generous, progressive, and intelligent people. I look up to them in a lot of ways, and I think they’re two of the smartest people I personally know. I find myself agreeing with them on 95% of the things I have opinions on (of course, this is not surprising).

On the other hand, I really wish my mom would take better care of herself. She seems to not give a shit at all about her health. She suffered her first heart attack last year at the age of 50, and has made very few changes to her lifestyle since then. She’s been nearly a pack-a-day smoker since she was younger than I am now and still smokes a lot. One of the hardest things about going home for me is when I go into her bathroom and see the brown, syrupy tobacco stains that literally drip from the ceiling. She’s also very sedentary and drinks lots of Dr. Pepper, which can’t be helping her health at all. My dad, though he also despises her smoking, is the one who buys the cigarettes for her (she has never done any grocery shopping as far as I can remember). I think he’s in kind of a state of learned hopelessness about it, since he has been married to my mom for 26 years and she adamantly refuses to change.

I guess, in some ways my parents inspire me in that they show me how not to live my life.